The company recorded its highest transaction rate ever, at 148 per second, at 12.24pm, on Christmas Eve. This compared with a peak of 132 transactions per second in 2012.

In Taranaki, $9.5 million was spent on December 22 and 23 through the Paymark system, which processes about 75 per cent of all electronic transactions in New Zealand. This was up 7 per cent from last year's $8.8m.